Tag Archives: Assembly of Experts

Tehran Bureau: Who’s in Charge?

Struggle for power builds between clerics, Revolutionary Guards. An important question that those who follow Iran’s political developments keep asking is, Who is the ultimate power in Iran, Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei and the clerics around him, or the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps?

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Rafsanjani Meets with Reformist MPs

(Pedestrian) | April 5, 2010 Rafsanjani Meets with Reformist MPs The delegates of the coalition of reformist parties – the Imam Khomeini Line – met with Mir Hossein Mousavi and Rafsanjani today. The Rafsanjani visit is translated below (crossposted at Khordaad88). The Mousavi visit will follow soon on Khordaad88. ————————- In continuing their new year [...]

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The Destination was to Begin the Journey

(The Pedestrian Blog) | March 10, 2010 The Pedestrian is an excellent blog providing insightful pieces on Iranian culture, politics and life.   Highly recommended by Iran News Now. Emad Bahavar [1979] is a political activist, writer and the head of “Supporters of Khatami and Mousavi” in the 2009 presidential campaign. He was arrested shortly after [...]

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Iran Analysis: Khamenei’s Not-So-Big Push

(Enduring America) | February 26, 2010 Scott Lucas No doubt this morning about the big news out of Iran. On Thursday, the Supreme Leader tried to lock down the security of his position once and for all, declaring that opposition leaders “have lost their credibility by denying the results of the elections. They did not [...]

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Deciphering Rafsanjani

(Tehran Bureau) | February 25, 2010 by HANA H. in Tehran [ analysis ] Iranians are a complex people. Talking in riddles and metaphors is a cultural thing that everyone learns from a young age. Iranian politicians have mastered this ‘art of riddle-talk.’ Most foreign journalists reporting on Iran do not realize that in order [...]

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Hashemi Announced Unity in Absence of Yazdi

(Rooz Online) | February 25, 2010 Farzaneh Bazrpour The seventh of Iran’s Assembly of Experts on Leadership, mandated by the constitution oversee the performance of the supreme leader began its annual session yesterday with Hashemi Rafsanjani’s speech but in the absence of Mohammad Yazdi. On Monday, the hardline Kayhan daily announced the session’s agenda to [...]

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IRAN: Opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi challenges hard-line authorities to a duel of rallies

(Los Angeles Times) | February 22, 2010 In his first major comments since the opposition failed to gather large numbers of supporters for protests coinciding with the Feb. 11 anniversary of Iran’s Islamic revolution, former presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi on Monday issued a bold challenge to the hard-line rulers of the Islamic Republic: Give the [...]

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Clerics side with people of Iran

From Mowjcamp.com: Ever since the fraudulent Presidential Elections in Iran in June 2009, the role of Shiite clerics from Qom and even Iraq in standing up to the coup government of Ahmadinejad and its backers has been unprecedented throughout the 30 year history of the Islamic Republic to say the least. Indeed the positions held [...]

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Musical pulpits: How the choice of Ghods Day’s prayer leader put the regime in overdrive

This article was written by Twitter activist: homylafayette. We have published this article in full with their permission. Will he or won’t he? The question has been burning Iranian newswires since Saturday. Will Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani lead Tehran’s Friday Prayer on Ghods Day, September 18, which the opposition has marked in green in its [...]

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Iran’s Power Brokers Part 3 – Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani – The Shark

While the Green Movement can’t count on Rafsanjani to support them unconditionally (far from it in fact), the situation has some light at the end of the tunnel in that Rafsanjani is likely seething with anger at how Khamenei is handling things. His interests will be aligned with those of the Green Movement insofar as sharing the goal of neutering Khamenei, Ahmadinejad and the IRGC, but they will likely diverge when this is accomplished. The people want freedom. Rafsanjani wants a comfortable life for Rafsanjani and family

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Iran’s Powerful Revolutionary Guard Chief Comes Under Fire

Who is damaging the Islamic republic?

This question pits two increasingly irreconcilable camps against each other as the debate continues to heat up in Tehran.

To hard-liners, the answer is clear: it is the reformists, who are accused of plotting a “velvet coup.” To reformists, it is the hard-liners themselves, whose actions undermine the very system they seek to preserve.

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Dawn of the Age of Justice

The people have not sat idly by, and in the past month a clear distinction has been made between the people on one-side, and the regime on the other. The world has seen the people’s aspirations for freedom, and their bravery in the face of terror and the tyranny of a false theocracy. The world has also seen the last shred of legitimacy that the government of Iran may have held disappear to reveal what can be safely described as a government structured like a mafia that sees itself as God’s representative on earth with the right to butcher its own people. It can’t be more clear than that.

The price has been paid in blood by the Iranian people. And blood has been spilled across every facet of Iranian society.

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Green Report #24 – Fresh News from Iran – July 10

Ayatollah Hashim Hashim-Zadeh Hareesi – a member of the Assembly of Experts – said today that people had started to distrust the system. He explained that whatever had happened after the election had caused people to become suspicious and that the government needed to take strides to restore people’s trust otherwise, distrust could result in further more severe problems.

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Green Report #10 – Fresh News from Iran – Summary of tweets on Iran from Friday, June 26

Reports indicate that the reason why Khamenei did not attend the prayers was Ayatollah Montazeri’s statements yesterday that denounced the government’s suppression of the protesters’ ‘legitimate demands’. This, according to sources, creates a divide between the powerful clergy which has pressured Khamenei just enough to stop him from giving out another speech of the caliber he gave last week. Whether Montazeri’s current stance will develop into something of a bigger boost to protesters remains to be seen.

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Feature: Instagrams from Iran (picture compilation)

A few pictures from Iran, taken by ordinary people and posted to Instagram

Iran Feature: Former Detainee Sarah Shourd “The Plight of Iranians and 3 Decades of US Foreign Policy”

The incredible thing for me was that so many Iranians worldwide took the time to care about us despite the thousands of other political prisoners they have to worry about. “I’m an Iranian boy ashamed for what our government did to three American hikers,” another message on Facebook says. “I want you to know Iranian people are with you and against their own government. Iran’s regime is not chosen by Iranian people. They kill and torture us and we are all in a very big prison named Iran.”

Iran Feature: The Supreme Leader Is Worried — Three Developments You Probably Don’t Know

Our partner, EAWorldView, has published a ground-breaking piece on Iran’s Supreme Leader. This is a must-read.

Live-blog: Russia, what’s next?

Live-blog: Egypt Elections, Day 1

A historic day: The first post-Mubarak elections in Egypt

Journalist Mona Eltahawy’s harrowing ordeal – beating, sexual assault and arrest in Egypt – in her own words and tweets

“The past 12 hrs were painful and surreal but I know I got off much much easier than so many other Egyptians.”